Seda Conference 2020 How Do We Build Back Better?
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A Build Back Better D SEDA Conference 2020 The Scottish Ecological Design Association magazine E Autumn 2020 S £5.00 SEDA CONFERENCE 2020 HOW DO WE BUILD BACK BETTER? SEDA Build Back Better Sustainable SEDA Shaping a Resilient Future... 02 Build Back Better 12 Daisy Narayanan Chris Stewart Scotland’s Land 04 Gail Halvorsen Supporting Sustainable Renovation 14 Chris Morgan Just & Green Recovery 05 Caroline Rance Giroscope Self-Build 15 Building Back Better … 06 Duncan Roberts Rabia Abrar Sustainable Specification SEDA Solar Hempcrete in Scotland 16 SEDA Solar 08 Tom Woolley & Rachel Bevan Colin Porteous & Gloria Lo Sustainable Thoughts Sustainable Students Resurrecting Resilience 10 Black Lives Matter 18 Chloë Yuill & Frances Grant Robina Qureshi SEDA was formed in 1991. Our at Annual General Meetings. The Editorial team primary aim is to share knowledge, Board is advised by a voluntary Nick Domminey, Viktoria Szilvas & skills and experience of ecological Steering Group which meets 8 times design. SEDA is a network and links a year for discussion and for planning Raina Armstrong those seeking information and services the activities of the Association. All With thanks to all our contributors, with those providing them. members are welcome to take part in sponsors, and supporters. these meetings. SEDA registered as a SEDA’s membership is made up of Company Limited by Guarantee in What do you think of this SEDA a large number of people involved February 2011. in, and with an interest in design, magazine? Do you have any principally in Scotland. Members A SEDA membership is a great disagreements or something useful to include academics, architects, way to support ecological design add to the issues covered? Do you have artists, builders, planners, students, in Scotland. As a member you will an idea for an article? Drop us an email at ecologists, landscape designers, receive the SEDA Magazine for free, [email protected] materials suppliers, woodworkers, get discounted tickets to SEDA events and many more whose work or and the opportunity to connect with Contact us interest is concerned with design for a a wide network of talented designers. seda.uk.net sustainable future. Our upcoming events can be found boxed in green throughout this issue. Facebook.com/ScotEcoDesign SEDA is a charity and is run by a Board of Directors, who are elected Cover image: David Seel @ScotEcoDesign SEDA Magazine Autumn 2020 01 Opinion Editorial Sustainable SEDA Nick Domminey Our Autumn SEDA magazine’s might apply to cities. Rabia Abrar members, which will offer a chance masthead is the loose and currently of the Wellbeing Economy Alliance both to discuss how we implement fashionable injunction to “Build Back and Caroline Rance of Friends of some of the week’s ideas and also Better”. Along with “sustainable”, the Earth Scotland both outline a hear Chris Morgan launch SEDA’s “green”, and other ecological series of guidelines and demands Guide to achieving Healthy Indoor epithets, it is used by environmental on government aimed at getting Air Quality, a longstanding and campaigners and offenders alike. increasingly urgent campaign. Rishi Sunak has been known to Build Back Better built into policy. invoke it as an aspiration while the SEDA’s own Gail Halvorsen tackles SEDA Magazine editorial Telegraph’s Phillip Johnson warns the thorny and related issue of team hope you enjoy this season’s that it is a “socialist trap”. Scotland’s land and how it might be edition. Please email us with better managed. SEDA is planning a comments, disagreements or ideas The basic premise is that major conference in spring 2021 to for future issues. the sociological hiatus created by look at this matter in more depth. the Covid crisis requires a “big government” response. But this must SEDA’s AGM and Conference not be a reversion to a pre-Covid, also offers the opportunity to “This was a nice one to get”. So said Professor Sandy Halliday on receiving her latest CO2 belching, alienated normal, but consider Build Back Better, looking accolade, winning the Women’s Engineering at urban and rural aspects over two an opportunity to reinforce those Society, Top 50 Women in Sustainability. It th th aspects which people suddenly saw evenings of 7 and 8 September; was a typically low-key response from the as life enhancing and ecologically login and book your virtual seat. SEDA and Gaia founder member, educator desirable. Chris Stewart’s article has the and environmental activist. Among many other projects, Sandy is currently developing To explore these issues, we have programme and an exposition on a sustainable construction course. It may link Sustrans Director, Daisy Narayanan, the issues. Then, on Thursday 10th in and revitalise the current RIAS Accreditation with an overview of how that premise we have SEDA AGM, free to all in Sustainable Construction. Women's Engineering Society Engineering Women's 02 Build Back Better Shaping a Resilient Future... For a Post-Covid World Daisy Narayanan connection; with each other and with the built and natural environment around us. We are presented with a stark choice. We can return to status quo or we can build back better, drawing on learning from these weeks of lockdown and harnessing the resilience shown by communities across Scotland. The public discussion around how we make our places better and more resilient is not a new one. As the impact of the climate crisis started to get real, city leaders across the UK had started to address a whole Daisy Narayanan Daisy range of issues such as air pollution, Daisy Narayanan, Director of and playing in the city. It was a shock traffic congestion, flooding, physical Urbanism at Sustrans, on the to the system to be in a vibrant public inactivity, and social inequality. opportunity presented by lockdown realm starkly in contrast to where I There was an acknowledgment to build back better and prioritise had just come from. that many of these problems arose walking, cycling and wheeling in our from decades of car-centric planning towns and cities I walked everywhere, the hills gradually getting easier! I got a in our towns and cities, and many In 2004 I moved to Edinburgh bicycle and enjoyed discovering this cities had begun to take action to after having lived for a few years in a amazing city on foot and by bike. I reduce car trips and make it more beautiful small town in America. felt healthier and happier than I had convenient for people to walk, cycle I lived in a gated community ever before. In Scotland, our town and wheel. right next to a glorious lake with a and city centres have always been the Over the past few years, I gorgeous bike trail just off the lake heart of our communities. have been involved in collaborative and a gym and pool less than a mile Unfortunately, somewhere discussions around the quality of our away. Perfect conditions, one would along the way, in the last 50 years, we towns and cities; the environmental, think, to lead a healthy lifestyle? have allowed ‘unhealthy transport’ social and economic reasons for However, I would drive to the to be prioritised at the expense of creating people friendly, ‘liveable’ gym to get exercise. I would drive to more active modes like walking and places. Because for too many people the nearest shop a mile away to do my cycling. in our town and city centres, the grocery shop. experience can a stressful and difficult This has not only had an impact one. When I felt a bit low, I would on the attractiveness of our places hop in my car and drive a few hours but more importantly on our health. Overcrowding on pavements for a walk in the mountains to feel And as we face a collective challenge and the dominance of the traffic better. Moving to Edinburgh changed in finding our way to recover from leads to an anxious experience for all of that. I lived in the compact COVID 19 and learn new ways people with any kind of mobility heart of Edinburgh surrounded by of moving forward, we also have or sensory issues. Making a street, a people out and about living, working an opportunity to recalibrate our neighbourhood, a shopping district SEDA Magazine Autumn 2020 03 Build Back Better for everyone means creating more traffic: “…so that people can more Government and managed by Sustrans space, more time, more greenery, less comfortably use these low-traffic Scotland, this £30m programme has stress, higher quality of placemaking. streets for physically distant walking, awarded funding to local authorities wheelchair rolling, jogging, and Creating places that people right across Scotland. The guiding biking all across the City.” want to be in, rather than briefly principles are ones of protecting pass through. And within the context The City of Vienna created public health, responding to local of an added urgency through the nine temporary meeting zones, need, being temporary while ensuring declaration of a Climate Emergency, reallocating road space from that measures are inclusive and work there has been a clear recognition motorised traffic to pedestrians in for everyone. that we need to build resilience to areas of high population density with The connection between tackle challenges of the future. narrow pavements and no parks or better public spaces and economic open spaces in the immediate vicinity. The pandemic has brought this recovery has never been clearer. In addition, it fully pedestrianised ongoing discussion and action into People want to go out, they want 20 other streets. In Scotland, we are sharp focus and created an urgency to connect, they want to once again seeing real change being delivered on to accelerate change, with examples share and exchange.